Background

The Irish Army Air Corps can trace its roots back to 1921 when a biplane was purchased to allow Michael Collins to escape from England should talks on independence fail. The Air Corps was established in its current form in 1924 as a corps of the Irish Army and therefore has been in existence almost 100 years.

Over the best part of a century many thousands of personnel have passed through Irish Army Air Corps ranks including pilots, technicians & line personnel with a sizable number of civilians also employed as well as numerous engineering students on work experience placement.

The Irish Army Air Corps have also been at the centre of historic events. The first East – West crossing of the Atlantic took off from the Irish Army Air Corps base at Casement Aerodrome and one of the crew was an Air Corps officer. Another famous flight was the landing of Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan after an unauthorised transatlantic flight from the USA. Participation by the Irish Army Air Corps in several blockbuster movies in the 1960s has also added to its rich history.

The Irish Army Air Corps has provided many decades of loyal service to the state in its capacity of aid to the civil power, army co-op, ministerial transport and search & rescue but like many hallowed institutions of this state the Irish Army Air Corps has a dark side.

This dark side has to do with the health & welfare of personnel of all types who served there and specifically to do with chemical Health & Safety. Unfortunately the aviation sector uses many highly toxic chemicals in the day to day maintenance of aircraft but in the Irish Army Air Corps even the most basic chemical safety measures were lacking over the past 50 years.

Since 1989 specific legislation covers the use of chemicals in the workplace but this has simply been ignored by the Irish Army Air Corps for the past 28 years.

We strongly believe the utter failure of Health & Safety management within the Irish Army Air Corps has significantly contributed to the untimely deaths of at least 73 personnel (as at 30/01/19) as well as the deaths of offspring, stillbirths & miscarriages. Unfortunately some of the chemicals that Air Corps personnel were exposed to are capable of causing inter-generational health problems through heritable genetic harm.

We also believe that scores of officers, enlisted personnel & civilians both serving & retired are suffering serious health implications from their exposure to toxic chemicals including cancers, auto-immune diseases as well as mental health issues.

Furthermore many more are at risk due to the long latency of the onset of life threatening symptoms.

There is also anecdotal evidence of high rates of cancer amongst spouses of serving / retired personnel and also high levels of special needs amongst serving / retired personnel offspring.

Unfortunately suicide rates & deaths with open verdicts amongst serving & former Irish Army Air Corps personnel anecdotally appear to be high and certainly out of kilter with rates in Army / Naval Service.

All these matters need to be publicly investigated by competent, independent, medical & scientific experts.

Prompt action by military & political authorities will save lives. Stalling or doing nothing will condemn further survivors to an early death.